Times 27657 – half an hour of pleasure and no pain.

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
I enjoyed doing this one as much as any of recent times, and, unlike last week, have no axes to grind about the definitions or clueing; some fine wordplay and nothing impenetrable. 1a and 2d were easy starters, but for some reason I passed those by and began with 6d, the Q then giving me 11a, and so on until we were all done in just under the 30 minutes. I think 1d gets my CoD award for the nice definition. I hope y’all found it as much fun as I did.

Across
1 Demanding second book (8)
HARDBACK – HARD = demanding, BACK = second. Seen it before I think.
5 Refrain from having key cut (6)
ESCHEW – ESC = key on keyboard, HEW = cut.
10 Imposing spell of tyranny after cutbacks (5)
LOFTY – Hidden word in SPEL(L OF TY)RANNY.
11 Drawing, a large Lowry, perhaps Irish remarkably (3,6)
ALL SQUARE – A, L (large) L.S. (Lowry perhaps, he was L S Lowry), QUARE an irish-ism for queer or odd.
12 Compounds charged in red light district? (9)
TARTRATES – TART RATES being what a working girl would ask for. Salts of tartaric acid.
13 Leave sometime, not fast (5)
EXEAT – EX = sometime, as in ex-lover perhaps; EAT = not fast.
14 Pieces, all the same length, needed for decongestant (7)
MENTHOL – MEN = pieces, THO’ = all the same, L = length.
16 Practise children’s game with energy and fondness (6)
DOTAGE – DO (practise) TAG (kids game) E (energy).
19 5 dads drink (4,2)
PASS UP – PA’S (Dad’s) SUP (drink). 5 = eschew.
21 Personnel one has included in Solicitor at Law’s contract (7)
SHRIVEL – S L = Solicitor at Law, insert HR and I’VE for personnel and one has.
23 Auntie half-heartedly backed naval officer making music (5)
BEBOP – Auntie = BBC, aka the BEEB, miss out one E and add OP being PO (Petty Officer) reversed.
25 Crossword setter, maybe, having to receive gold medal (9)
WORDSMITH – WITH = having, insert OR (gold) DSM (medal).
27 A ship, eg, circles different parts of our canals (9)
OESOPHAGI – (A SHIP EG OO)*, where OO = circles.
28 Step from carriage on way through town (5)
STAIR – ST = street, AIR = carriage.
29 To live without you close for so long! (3-3)
BYE-BYE – BE = to live, insert YE (you) BY (close). B (YE BY)E.
30 Fish from can to cook, recently gutted (4,4)
JOHN DORY – JOHN = US slang for can, Gents; DO = cook, RY = recently gutted.

Down
1 The rest of the players could make them fail (4-4)
HALF-TIME – (THEM FAIL)*. Nice definition, nice clue.
2 Occasions for choosing before once between judge and new attorney (9)
REFERENDA – REF (judge) ERE (before) N DA (new attorney).
3 Purchaser’s place to keep stock of audition (5)
BUYER – Homophone for BYRE where (animal) stock is kept.
4 Item of property as result of gossip changing hands (7)
CHATTEL – CHATTER (gossip) has the end R changed to L.
6 Appropriate header concealed from user adopting online search? (9)
SEQUESTER – E QUEST = online search, insert into SER = USER with header concealed. My FOI.
7 Almost the perfect place for a fling (5)
HEAVE – Almost HEAVEN.
8 Band at funeral threw a wobbly (6)
WREATH – (THREW A)*. I tried to make it harder by constructing an anagram of FUNER L meaning band.
9 Record hosts fail to keep to (6)
CLOSED – CD (record) has LOSE (fail) inserted. Keep to, as in a door.
15 Still a sort of fat found in fried bread (9)
HUSHPUPPY – HUSH = still, and PUPPY fat. A hushpuppy here is a kind of fried corndough ball found in the Southern US, I recall trying one and being unimpressed. Where I come from, Hushpuppies are a brand of comfortable shoes.
17 Try present with one label round (4,2,1,2)
GIVE IT A GO – GIVE (present) I (one) TAG (label) O (round).
18 Particles of dry grass crossing a river beneath mountain (5,3)
ALPHA RAY – ALP (mountain) HAY (dry grass) has A R(iver) inserted. Alpha particles are identical to helium4 nuclei, each particle consisting of two protons and two neutrons, emitted by many radioactive elements as they decay to the element two below, e.g. 92 Uranium 238 into 90 thorium 234. “alpha ray” is an alternative term for the emitted particle radiation.
20 Twice a year, wife brings fruit (6)
PAWPAW – P.A. = a year, W = wife, twice.
21 Indoors, surprisingly, could be damper (7)
SORDINO – (INDOORS)*. The mute used with a trumpet.
22 Sailors at ball drink up (6)
ABSORB – ABS (sailors) ORB (ball).
24 Count, maybe low, swollen by one (5)
BASIE – BASE (low) has I inserted. Count Basie was a famous jazz musician.
26 Potentially miss appeal appearing in paper (5)
SUSAN – SA (sex appeal) inside the SUN newspaper. As on page 3 perhaps.

​

96 comments on “Times 27657 – half an hour of pleasure and no pain.”

  1. Yes very enjoyable except that I had a brain seizure for my LOI, where I got LOFTY but couldn’t work out why. And the hidden wasn’t very well hidden either.
    Mainly held up in the NE, especially trying to fit SURF into 6d.
  2. Right up my street, apparently. Much enjoyed. The hushpuppy came up in an online quiz last week, so I was glad to find that little bit of culinary knowledge had stuck at least long enough to be of use here.
  3. Had to admit defeat at 49 minutes, undone by hushpuppy- never heard of it and having learned of it now don’t feel my life is enhanced. The only galling thing is that I think this clue might have appeared earlier this year.

    Apart from that, all the rest was sorted though I do have a grumble about 18 across, alpha ray. I worked it out but shouldn’t it be particle not particles?

    1. No, the ray is a stream of particles, in the same way that a ray of light is a stream of photons. Well, it’s more complicated because of quantum effects and wave / particle duality, but we’ll leave Schrödinger out of it for now.

      Edited at 2020-05-06 02:41 pm (UTC)

      1. Thanks. Can we talk about his cat?

        On second thoughts, having just read an explanation I think it’s better for my mental health to leave the cat unexplored as well.

  4. Same obscurities as others, but got there in the end with sequester/square the last two in. Another who finds tartrate a bit squeamish. And as a non-American, sort of knew a hushpuppy as a southern-US snack, which virtually requires it to be deep-fried, without actually knowing what it was. Been to an airport in Louisiana once, they don’t ask you questions, they aks (axe?) you questions. And they deep-fry their steaks in batter!
    Tricky.
  5. Step for carriage on way through town – can someone explain the through town bit?? thanks
      1. Thank you – feeling a bit silly because I assumed way was enough and separated it off from through town 🙁
  7. I found this very tough, was nowhere near the wavelength and it took me just over an hour but unfortunately I managed to type wreate instead of wreath so a DNF. Couldn’t remember Lowry’s initials. Dnk quare. Took ages to justify exeat. Hard work.
  8. 12:34 – just about on my average, though I felt as I was solving it I was finding it more difficult. HUSHPUPPIES are a very common side dish where I live now, they make good transfer food for barbecue sauce or mustard.
  9. Just over an hour, after my usual break to make the last three fall into place, but at least today all my guesses (…QUARE, SORDINO, JOHN DORY) were correct. SORDINO seemed the correct anagram because it reminded me of sourd=deaf. And otherwise I did understand all of the wordplay for once. I rather enjoyed TARTRATES.
  11. has this reply been floating round the ether? – as we say up here I’ve been to bed since then 🙂

Comments are closed.